Flooding continued to wreak havoc with Christmas commuters and homeowners today after the festive downpour continued overnight.

Flooding continued to wreak havoc with Christmas commuters and homeowners today after the festive downpour continued overnight.

There were seven flood warnings – where flooding is said to be “expected” – across Wales and further pressure on the rail network was expected with people who were unable to travel yesterday adding to already heaving services.

Homeowners on Berw Road in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, had a restless night’s sleep after a 20ft retaining wall collapsed and rocks and rubbles fell rapidly onto their homes.

Craig Stewart, 26, who lives on Berw Road, in Pontypridd, with his partner Katie, 23, said he grabbed his young son from his cot after hearing a loud “clattering” noise.

He said: “I woke up, heard like a clattering sound. My immediate thought was the cat had knocked the bin over to be honest.

“I looked out of the window but couldn’t work out what it was.

“The last thing I heard, which is when I realised, was the breaking of wood because of the extension and I thought it was pressure on the timber shoring.

“I grabbed the baby out of the cot. We could hear it starting to come down so we legged it down the stairs and out of the house.

“The whole house was shaking – it was like thunder.”

Mr Stewart added things could have been a lot worse if the collapse had happened at a different time of day.

“The neighbours, if they had been in their kitchen, they would be dead,” he said.

“If anybody was out the back, there was no getting away from it.

“The scary thing is there were noises before it happened, so if anyone had the immediate reaction to go outside and see what the noises are, they couldn’t get away.

“It’s obviously been raining but the wall’s been waiting to collapse for ages.”

Engineers from Rhondda Cynon Taf council were working to make the homes “temporarily safe”.

There were severe delays to a number of Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) services in Wales, among them the Swansea to Cardiff, Cardiff to Barry and Valleys lines.

Trains between Cardiff and Bridgend are suspended and those between Bristol Parkway and Cardiff delayed up to an hour.

And First Great Western said on its website there were also problems between Cardiff and Newport.

A statement read: “Signalling problems at Cardiff Central is causing significant disruption to services in South Wales. Train Services are currently unable to operate between Newport and Cardiff Central in either direction.

“The road network around Newport is currently experiencing severe disruption, which is impinging on our ability to provide road transport.”

The operator was advising passengers with non-essential journeys not to travel on trains or replacement buses in the area at all, because of flooding and poor road conditions.

On Sunday morning, flood warnings remained in place at the River Wye at Glasbury; River Ely at Ely Bridge; the Dyfi Valley; River Ely at Peterston super Ely; River Ely at St. Fagans; River Ritec at Tenby; and Lower Dee Valley from Llangollen to Chester.

The environment agency had said on Saturday that a heightened flood risk existed in South Wales, Ceredigion and Gwynedd.

Conditions remain worst in the South West of the UK, and particularly Devon and Cornwall.

In Umberleigh, near Barnstaple in Devon, a woman was swept away from her car in the early hours of today after flooding in the area.

A police helicopter found the woman clinging to branches of a tree on the banks of the swollen River Taw, Devon and Cornwall Police said.

Fire crews helped her to safety using a rigid inflatable, and she was treated for exposure to the water.

The town of Braunton in north Devon was effectively cut off yesterday, with homes and shops under water, after the River Caen burst its banks.

Though the River Caen is now falling and rain is clearing, an EA spokesman said the river yesterday breached a section of Braunton’s flood defences.

The £1.2 million defence scheme was completed in June when the agency said the works meant flooding would be reduced from a one in 20 chance of occurring in any one year to one in 100.

Meanwhile in the Vale of Glamorgan on Saturday, a woman was rescued from her car by passers-by after it was swept into a river in Llancarfan.

The woman was driving through the village when her black Mini ended up in the swollen waterway and began floating backwards with her trapped inside.

Two men smashed the car window using a ladder and pulled her to safety just moments before her car was washed under the bridge and filled with water.

Sam Smith, one of the woman's rescuers, said he crawled across the ladder, got the woman out of the car and then with a friend led the woman to safety.

He said: “Once we had got her across we pulled the ladder out of the car, and I suppose about a minute later off it went under the bridge. There is no question, the poor lady would have been drowned, absolutely no question.”

And Homeowners on Berw Road on Pontypridd were waking up to flooding after a retaining wall collapsed.

According to one witness, a terrace of miners' cottages were flooded "up to their windows".

"The wall's collapsed and it's literally gone to window level of the properties," the witness said.

He added engineers from Rhondda Cynon Taf Council were attending the scene.

On Saturday, 30 homes near Swansea were flooded and 11 homes in Ystalyfera were evacuated after a landslide due to flooding in the Swansea valley village.

The residents in Ystalyfera spent the night in a leisure centre.

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue left the scene at 3am. Police said on Sunday four properties remained evacuated.

Alun Llewellyn, the Neath Port Talbot councillor for Ystalyfera where 11 homes were evacuated on Saturday night due to a landslide caused by torrential rain, said yesterday engineers were assessing the situation.

A large amount of mud, trees and stones slid from a hillside onto Panteg in Ystalyfera, the road having a history of landslide problems.

Mr Llewellyn, who went to the scene on Saturday night said: “It was a serious incident and the main priority for the council, the police and the fire service was to ensure everyone was safe so a number of homes were evacuated.

“Engineers from the council, Western Power and Mid and West Wales Fire Brigade teams are looking at the situation now to see where we go from here.”

Residents were being let back into homes in Ystalyfera to check possessions, with South Wales Police saying four homes remained evacuated.

Residents are either staying with relatives or have been provided with accommodation at a local hotel by the council.

Mr Llewellyn said: “We are dependent on the weather and at the moment there arre blue skies but it could change.”

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